How Russia outplayed the US with Turkey in Syria

In the last days of August a delegation from the Syrian Democratic Council arrived in Moscow for meetings. The group is linked to the Kurdish leadership of eastern Syria. Russian officials and the SDC met and Russia’s Tass news agency said that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had discussions with co-chair of the SDF Ilham Ahmed. Russia was able to meet with the SDC openly and also meet with Turkish officials, even though Turkey’s leaders consider the SDC linked to “terrorists.” At the same time US diplomats have generally given the SDC the cold shoulder and been unable to work with Turkey on Syrian issues. Why has Russia succeeded where the US failed to work with its...